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LOL. Now it looks like I started this thread! I think we started with a rant about the quality of DPM kits (?)
While it's interesting to discuss the model railroad business world, and sometimes helps to blow off steam, I've personally come to the realization that it gets me nowhere. Instead of waiting for some manufacturer to build something to fit my locale and era, or to my quality satisfaction, I'll scratchbuild or kitbash. Frankly, I'm grateful for the amount of products that are available, or were formerly available that I can still find at a swap meet. If manufacturers want to leave my era out of their product line (and they do), fine, I'll find my own way. I've still got a layout to build and rather than wait for some manufacturer to provide something for me, I'll find some way to do it myself just for the sake of getting something done. Having a partially completed layout because I am waiting for someone else isn't accomplishing very much, and isn't fun.
--
Kevin
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That's the spirit, Kevin!
The core of the hobby was always building scale railroad/ railroad-related models and then putting them to good use ...
... the advantage our hobby has over so many others ... we actually use what we build!
Once I bit the bullet and kit-bashed my first structure (carefully following instructions by the Kit-Bash Miester, Art Curren,) my approach to the hobby was changed forever! I even look at structure kits differently now than I did before!
There is a wealth of "kit bits building materials" out there, plus, once you cut and file and glue up that first piece of sheet styrene to a production kit wall, you have stepped into a whole new world, a world of endless possibilities. Never again should you ever see a structure on someone else's layout that is also on yours!
To me, that is one of the beauties of this wonderful hobby!
So the DPM walls don't fit each other perfectly ... so ... MAKE THEM FIT!
biL
Lehigh Susquehanna & WesternÂ
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Great thread, great discussion.
Charlie
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Well Kevin, blowing off steam gets you somewhere... A little piece of mind
Tom
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"Kit bashing" is an interesting concept, because it implies that there are kits out there for modelers to work on in the first place.
Before there were kits, there was "scratch building", which I have done my fair share of, but I don't think the majority of railroad modelers want to have to build everything from scratch, an incredibly time consuming process that isn't for everyone.
OTH, if we go back to the "good old days" of building everything from the ground up ourselves, we won't even need the modeling industry at all. I guess then we can rant about the miniature tool industry failing to meet our needs. 8-)
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Bringing this rant back to structure modeling again (thanks biL) and referencing kitbashing has sucked me in, especially since I just started a kitbashed structure thread using a structure that has been overplayed and abused again and again.
That's one thing I like about kitbashing, whether it's structure or rolling stock or locomotive work. I like taking an inferior product and making it better. Nothing is beyond salvage, but there may be items that call for a heavy investment in time and talent before they can be brought up to a higher level or a more fine-scale, finished look.
And let's face it, there are inferior models out there that many would call just plain crap. As a person who tries to see the good in everything I have learned to recognize the pros and cons of many shoddy kits.
That said, I also realize that expensive items like locomotives that are touted as reliable ought to run well and last long right out of the box...without having to change cracked gears (eh-Hmm! Bachmann Spectrum 44 tonners, shays, etc.) or remotor. I expect to have to remotor a Tyco steamer because the hobby has grown since they were originally released on an unsuspecting public. But the stitches shouldn't fall out of a silk purse, if you catch my drift.
Dangit, now I got us on locomotives again. 
Galen
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ocalicreek Wrote:Bringing this rant back to structure modeling again (thanks biL) and referencing kitbashing has sucked me in, especially since I just started a kitbashed structure thread using a structure that has been overplayed and abused again and again.
That's one thing I like about kitbashing, whether it's structure or rolling stock or locomotive work. I like taking an inferior product and making it better. Nothing is beyond salvage, but there may be items that call for a heavy investment in time and talent before they can be brought up to a higher level or a more fine-scale, finished look.
And let's face it, there are inferior models out there that many would call just plain crap. As a person who tries to see the good in everything I have learned to recognize the pros and cons of many shoddy kits.
That said, I also realize that expensive items like locomotives that are touted as reliable ought to run well and last long right out of the box...without having to change cracked gears (eh-Hmm! Bachmann Spectrum 44 tonners, shays, etc.) or remotor. I expect to have to remotor a Tyco steamer because the hobby has grown since they were originally released on an unsuspecting public. But the stitches shouldn't fall out of a silk purse, if you catch my drift.
Dangit, now I got us on locomotives again.
Galen
Excellent points. As you say, even shoddy kits can provide the foundation for a good finished model. 
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a couple decades ago, shoddy items were priced accordingly. The sad part was some of the locomotives that were made for the toy train market had locomotives that were not available in the higher priced lines. Model power made a 6 axle ALCO C628, Sharks. E7's and some 4 axle ALCO's, AHM made the C-liners and a BL-2 as well as some 4 Axle ALCO's and Tyco-Mantua made a bunch of steam locomotives as well as an F7 and a GP20. The TYCO stuff after Mantua was terrible stuff, 2 laps around a 4X8 and a Durotorque motor was letting the smoke out. But these locomotives did lend to some kitbashing so you could have a model that ran well and resembled the prototype somewhat, without spending a lot of money.
Charlie
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Those were the days, C-liners in Reading yellow and green, GG-1's riding on 6-wheel Alco trucks. 2-8-2's cut down to 0-8-0's so they would track more reliably. Never realized it until later, but my first N scale loco was a Bachmann F9 in Reading yellow and green.
--Randy
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